Transcription

1 Problematic contact after separation and divorce? A national survey of parents Victoria Peacey and Joan Hunt

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3 Problematic contact after separation and divorce? A national survey of parents Victoria Peacey and Joan Hunt

4 Problematic contact after separation and divorce? A national survey of parents ISBN First published July One Parent Families Gingerbread. All rights reserved. Victoria Peacey is Research and Policy Officer at One Parent Families Gingerbread. Joan Hunt is Senior Research Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Family Law and Policy, Oxford University. Acknowledgements and thanks are due to the following people: The parents who gave up their time to be interviewed. Our steering and advisory committee, whose input and comments have been enormously valuable in the design of the survey and during the analysis of our data. The staff of the Omnibus at the Office for National Statistics. Tina Haux, who co-wrote the funding application with Joan Hunt. The Nuffield Foundation, whose generous support has made this project possible. Abbreviations used in the tables: RP Resident parent NRP Non-resident parent The Nuffield Foundation is a charitable trust established by Lord Nuffield. Its widest charitable object is the advancement of social well-being. The Foundation has long had an interest in social welfare and has supported this project to stimulate public discussion and policy development. The views expressed are however those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Foundation. One Parent Families Gingerbread 255 Kentish Town Road, London NW5 2LX Tel: Fax: The National Council for One Parent Families is a registered charity no and a company limited by guarantee and registered in London no

7 INTRODUCTION 1 Introduction In families where parents have separated, children commonly live for most of the time with one parent (the resident parent). In the UK, the time they spend with the other parent (the nonresident parent) is now known as contact, although the older term access is still sometimes used, while some organisations representing non-resident parents argue that a better description would be the more neutral term parenting time. In some other jurisdictions, the preferred descriptor is visitation. Contact is the word used throughout this report. The study This report sets out the findings of the first stage of a project exploring the nature and extent of contact problems in the general population of separated families and their relationship to contact patterns. This involved a quantitative, nationwide, face-to-face survey of 559 separated parents. The survey addressed the following questions: 1 What proportion of the separated population have experienced and are currently experiencing problems with contact? 2 What is the nature of these problems and their respective (reported) incidence? 3 Are there any broad differences between parents reporting and not reporting problems and the nature of the problems reported (e.g. gender, previous relationship status, years since separation, age of child)? 4 Is there a relationship between the problems reported, or their absence, and whether contact is continuing, its type and frequency? 5 What is the balance between problems being resolved and contact taking place: contact continuing but problems persisting and problems only ceasing because contact has ceased? 6 What proportion of non-resident parents allege contact denial or obstruction? What proportion of resident parents say they have stopped contact? 7 What proportion of resident parents perceive lack of commitment to contact on the part of the non-resident parent to be a significant problem? 8 What proportion of parents reporting contact problems have been involved in court proceedings/used professional advice? The second stage of the project, which is still underway, involves qualitative interviews with a sub-sample of parents and children. A second report will be published which integrates the findings of the two stages. Background to the research Parental separation affects around three million of the twelve million children in the UK (DCA, DfES, DTI, 2004). Research indicates that while many children will experience short-term distress around the time of the break-up (Richards and Dyson, 5

8 PROBLEMATIC CONTACT AFTER SEPARATION AND DIVORCE? ), most are resilient (Kelly, 2000). Some, however, have long-term problems of adjustment (Amato and Keith, 1991; Buchanan and Ten Brinke, 1997). Children s adjustment after parental separation is affected by a complex interplay of diverse factors (Kelly, 2000). One of the protective factors is a positive ongoing relationship with the non-resident parent (Pryor and Rodgers, 2001). This can be misinterpreted as meaning that contact, per se, is a good thing, whereas the weight of research tends to show that it is the nature and quality of parenting by the nonresident parent that is crucial (Gilmore, 2006; Hunt, 2004). Moreover some contact can be very damaging. In addition to the obvious risks from an abusive or neglectful non-resident parent, or being affected, directly or indirectly by domestic violence, research particularly highlights the more subtle dangers to children of being caught up in parental conflict (Harold and Murch, 2005). Since it is impossible to maintain any relationship unless parent and child are in touch with each other, public policy has increasingly sought to promote contact. The Green Paper Parental Separation: Children s Needs and Parents Responsibilities, for instance, states that the government firmly believes that both parents should continue to have a meaningful relationship with their child after separation, as long as it is safe (DCA/DfES/DTI, 2004). The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the European Convention on Human Rights both support the rights of the child and in the case of the latter, the rights of the parent to have contact. Unlike some other jurisdictions, there is no statutory presumption of contact in the Children Act, 1989, the key piece of legislation, which is based solely on the welfare principle, i.e. the paramountcy of the best interests of the child. However, where parents who cannot agree about contact take their disputes to court they are likely to encounter a strong pro-contact stance (Bailey-Harris et al, 1999). Indeed in their desire to secure contact for children, it is acknowledged that the courts have sometimes taken insufficient account of risks to children and parents (Advisory Board on Family Law, 1999). Despite this strong emphasis on the potential value of contact there are many children who lose touch with their non-resident parent. Estimates, however, vary wildly across the various studies (Hunt, 2004) from less than 10 per cent (Attwood, et al, 2003) to 40 per cent (Bradshaw and Millar, 1991). This highest figure, however, is somewhat outdated, was based on a low response rate, and has not been supported by more recent research. Most estimates of the proportion of children who lose contact altogether conclude that the figure is around 30 per cent. In the past, the primary explanation for lack of contact tended to be framed in terms of non-resident parents failing to keep in touch the deadbeat dad stereotype. Recent research indicates that this is still perceived to be a factor behind some cases where there is no contact (Blackwell and Dawe, 2003; Bradshaw et al, 1999; Eekelaar et al, 2000; Smart et al, 2005; Stark et al, 2001; Trinder et al, 2002; Wikeley, 2001). A nationally representative study by the Office for National Statistics, for instance, notes that among the minority of resident parents who were dissatisfied with contact, 31 per cent wanted more contact to be taking place (Blackwell and Dawe, 2003). Similarly, a court-based study of contact disputes reports more resident mothers complaining that fathers failed to exercise the contact they had been awarded than non-resident fathers who complained about contact being thwarted (Smart et al, 2005). The failure to exercise contact has never been addressed in public policy and has been described as a invisible problem (Smart et al, 2005).

9 INTRODUCTION In contrast, a competing explanation, obstruction by a hostile resident parent, is currently attracting considerable public and policy attention. The Children and Adoption Act 2006, for example, gives courts wider powers to prevent and deal with non-compliance with court orders. Opposition parties have sought more fundamental reform, a presumption of reasonable contact, with the aim of preventing contact denial by strengthening community expectations of substantial involvement by both parents in post-separation parenting. Research with non-resident fathers in the UK reports that they perceive contact obstruction to be a common experience and a major reason for contact breakdown (Bradshaw et al, 1999; Mitchell, 1985; Lund, 1987; Kruk, 1993; Simpson et al, 1995; Wikely, 2001). Almost half the non-resident fathers with no contact in one study (Bradshaw et al, 1999) attributed this to the mother s unreasonable obstruction. While resident parents are less likely to acknowledge such behaviour, there is some evidence that these perceptions are not entirely illusory. Instances are reported in several recent UK studies (Pearce et al, 1999; Smart et al, 1997; Smart et al, 2005), and a quarter of resident parents in a US study (Braver et al, 1991) admitted undermining or denying contact at some point, although it is not clear whether these figures refer to occasional or short-term denial or to entrenched resistance. Little is known about the circumstances which give rise to contact resistance and the extent to which it might be deemed warranted. It has been variously attributed to genuinely held concerns about the behaviour of the non-resident parent; denial of the value of fathers to children; a means of retaliation; a form of mental disturbance; a response to chronic conflict, or a history of unreliable or unsatisfactory contact (Day Sclater and Kaganas, 2003; Kressel 1985; Mitchell, 1985; Pearson and Thoennes, 1998; Perry et al, 1992; Rhoades, 2002; Strategic Partners, 1998; Trinder et al, 2002; Turkat, 1997; Wallerstein and Kelly, 1980). While both the deadbeat dad and the obstructive mother paradigms probably contain an element of truth, in most instances the reality is likely to be far more complex. What is very clear from research is that establishing and maintaining satisfactory contact arrangements can present major challenges to both resident and non-resident parents and to their children (Bainham et al, 2003; Bradshaw et al, 1999; Smart et al, 2001; Trinder et al, 2002). Quantitative research shows that some factors are consistently associated with ongoing contact: the parents having previously been married rather than cohabiting or never having lived together; a cooperative post-separation relationship between the parents; the child wanting contact; the non-resident parent living within a reasonable travelling distance of the child; the non-resident parent being in employment, having a higher income and education, paying child support and not having further children (Pryor and Rodgers, 2001). As Trinder s work has shown, however, (Trinder et al, 2002) the fact that contact is happening does not necessarily mean that it is working. She defines working contact as arrangements where: contact occurs without risk of physical or psychological harm to any party; parents and children are committed to contact and broadly satisfied with the current arrangements; and, on the whole, contact is a positive experience for all concerned. A wide range of factors were considered to influence the extent to which contact worked. There were direct determinants (commitment to contact, role clarity, relationship quality); challenges (the nature of the separation, 7

10 PROBLEMATIC CONTACT AFTER SEPARATION AND DIVORCE? new adult partners, money, logistics, parenting style and quality, safety issues); mediating factors which influenced how challenges were handled (beliefs about contact, relationship skills, the involvement of family, friends and external agencies). All these interacted over time. Trinder concluded that no single ingredient was responsible for making contact work or not work. It was the attitudes, actions and interactions of all family members that were determinative. Making contact work required the commitment of both adults and children. An important feature of successful arrangements was a parental bargain whereby resident parents positively facilitated, rather than simply allowed, contact while, for their part, non-resident parents accepted their contact status. Only 10 per cent of parents living apart in the UK have been to court to resolve disputes over contact (Blackwell and Dawe, 2003). Those who do are likely to have experienced multiple problems. Trinder s study of litigating parents (Trinder et al, 2005) reports that, when they were asked to identify which out of 14 potential problems they had experienced, very few parents selected only one or two; the average was seven, with little difference between mothers and fathers. The vast majority of separated parents, however, do not go to court over contact. Where contact is not taking place it seems likely that at least some problems have been experienced. But what about the others? Trinder has shown that even working contact is not necessarily problem-free but can involve significant tension between the adults and that non-working contact does not necessarily come to court (Trinder et al, 2002). In the ONS study (Blackwell and Dawe, 2004) only between 50 per cent and 60 per cent of the parents had agreed arrangements and around three in ten were dissatisfied with the current position. This suggests that a fairly substantial proportion of the separated population may be experiencing contact problems at any one time and even more may go through a period when contact is problematic. A community study of divorcing parents in the US measured the prevalence of specified contact difficulties at three time-points in a large population of divorcing parents (Wolchik et al, 1996). Problems were found to be extremely common at all three points. The overwhelming majority of residential parents reported several problems, as did a smaller, but still substantial percentage of non-residential parents. This project builds on the studies by Trinder and Wolchik to explore the incidence and nature of contact problems in the general UK separating population. It seeks to address a major gap in our knowledge of contact issues and thus make an informed contribution to the debate in this vital but controversial and emotive area of policy. A better understanding of which problems are widely experienced, and which problems are likely to affect contact, can only help in the design and delivery of services for children and separated parents and the development of public policy. Parents themselves can also benefit from an understanding of how problems affect contact and how the effects can perhaps be mitigated. 8

11 METHODOLOGY 2 Methodology The Omnibus survey The data presented here comes from the responses of 559 parents to questions placed on the ONS Omnibus Survey. The survey was conducted in six waves, between July 2006 and March The Omnibus survey is a multi-purpose social survey conducted by the Office for National Statistics. It uses random probability sampling stratified to obtain good coverage of Great Britain. Government departments, agencies and academics are able to purchase space on the survey to put their own questions to respondents. A typical wave of the Omnibus includes questions on between five to eight topics, plus questions which obtain a constant core of demographic and income data. (Further details on sample design are in Appendix 1.) Each module is expected to take up no more than ten minutes. Interviews take place face-to-face in the respondent s home or occasionally over the telephone. Interviewers use Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) to go through the survey and enter responses. The programme determines questions based on previous answers so that interviewees are only asked questions relevant to their circumstances. For some topics, respondents are invited to read the questions on the computer screen and enter their answers themselves directly into the computer. While this can increase error slightly it is useful when exploring sensitive issues. Respondents to our module on contact were invited to read the questions on-screen and enter their own answers, and 68 per cent of those who completed the questions on contact chose to do this. The remainder listened to the questions read out by the interviewer and the interviewer entered their responses. Appendix 2 contains the questionnaire used. Resident and non-resident parents were asked broadly similar questions with some changes in wording where appropriate. In some cases questions were altered after the first wave, where preliminary analysis revealed that the data structure could be improved. Changes to the questionnaire are noted in Appendix 2. The survey interviews only one adult per household. This means that the chance of selection is partly dependent on household size people living in a large household are less likely to be selected than people who live on their own. A weighting factor is applied to counteract this (see further details in Appendix 1). Where percentage figures are presented in this report they have always been weighted with this factor. Bases are unweighted and as such represent the real number of respondents whose answers are depicted. For this reason we do not normally present the numbers against each percentage. Respondents were asked about the contact arrangements and experiences of contact relating to one child only. Occasionally a respondent was both a resident parent for one child and a non-resident parent for another. These parents were asked about the child that they did not live with. 1 Parents who said that they shared the care of the child more or less equally were not asked further questions. 1 If there was more than one child there was no opportunity for respondents to choose which child they would discuss the instructions were to answer in relation to the child whose first name was first in the alphabet. Randomising the selection after gathering details of all relevant children would have been difficult and time-consuming. 9

12 PROBLEMATIC CONTACT AFTER SEPARATION AND DIVORCE? Rationale for selecting an Omnibus survey over other options The decision to use an Omnibus survey was taken after thoroughly exploring other ways to obtain a representative sample of resident and non-resident parents in a costeffective and timely way. Of the alternatives, a dedicated survey, using longer face-toface interviews, would have been ideal, but since we estimated that the target group probably represented at most less than 20 per cent of the population, the costs were likely to be prohibitive (Bradshaw et al, 1999). While less costly, a random telephone survey has serious disadvantages in that firstly, not everyone has a landline, and mobile numbers are not accessible, and secondly, the generally lower response rates for telephone surveys might be particularly low for this sensitive subject. We considered tapping into existing surveys such as the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) or the Millennium Cohort. However, both are cohort surveys; ALSPAC does not include non-resident parents and the Millennium Cohort is only beginning to do so (and of course the children involved are still very young). The most difficult decision was whether to use the Omnibus as a survey, i.e. a module on contact, supplemented by qualitative interviews, or purely as a screening tool to identify eligible parents, with all data being collected through telephone interviews (face-to-face being too costly for large numbers). The principal advantage of the first option was the likely high response rate to the contact module. ONS experience is that once participants have agreed to be interviewed for the whole Omnibus survey, only a small proportion refuse individual modules (the contact study carried out by ONS for the Department for Constitutional Affairs (Blackwell and Dawe, 2003) obtained a 90 per cent response rate). Our reservations were the constraints of time (ten minutes maximum per module) and the cost per question. Also, the module would run alongside others on entirely different topics and participants might find moving onto such a sensitive subject difficult. We did, therefore, explore the possibility of using the Omnibus purely to identify a sample. The main advantage of this option would be the longer time available for interview. In the end, however, we concluded that this benefit was substantially outweighed by the principal disadvantage: that the response rate is likely to be less than half that of the first option. ONS, for example, ran a screening survey on the Omnibus for a disability study. Only 62 per cent of respondents agreed to be recontacted. There would be further drop out at re-contact stage. Bradshaw et al (1999) used both options in their study of non-resident fathers. The first (a module in the Omnibus with on the spot interviews) had a 56 per cent response rate. In contrast, when a (commercial) omnibus was used merely to recruit participants for interview only 40 per cent agreed to be re-contacted and interviews were achieved with only 30 per cent. Further, when MacLean and Eekelaar (1997) used an omnibus to recruit separated parents, a third were found to have wrongly identified themselves. Thus, though the achieved sample would be drawn from a representative sampling pool, we would have no way of checking how biased it was in terms of the characteristics of our target group. As this would seriously compromise the main purpose of the study, namely to obtain statistically robust estimates on the prevalence of contact problems in the population, we decided to use the ONS Omnibus as the survey vehicle despite the constraints it imposed (see below). 10

13 METHODOLOGY The questionnaire The questionnaire was devised in consultation with our advisory group, which consisted of experts in family law, contact issues, and family policy. The advice of the research team on the Omnibus survey was also invaluable. A gap of several months was scheduled between the first and second waves of the survey to allow for preliminary analysis of the data and discussion about whether the questionnaire was achieving the aims of the project. Some changes were made to the questionnaire after the first wave. The changes were not extensive, focusing mainly on new questions for parents whose child had no contact, and are detailed on a copy of the questionnaire in Appendix 2. In some cases, the changes to the questionnaire, however, mean that the data for July 2006 is not comparable and not included, and this is clearly noted in tables and figures. Response rates Response rates to the Omnibus survey as a whole varied between 61 per cent and 68 per cent in the months when our questions were asked a reasonable response for this type of research and are detailed in Appendix 1. Response rates to the module on contact were slightly lower (64 per cent) as respondents were able to refuse to answer these questions while taking part in the rest of the survey. Appendix 1 looks briefly at those people who declined to answer questions about children living apart from them on contact. Non-resident parents response rates were lower than hoped and this is discussed below. Limitations of the methodology As explained in a preceding section, our decision to use the Omnibus survey was taken after a careful weighing of the respective merits of the alternatives. We are, nevertheless, very aware of the constraints it imposed on the study, most notably the fact that we were restricted to a single module, which could not exceed ten minutes in length. Moreover, the costs were related to the number and type of questions, with those which invited a multiple response being more expensive than those which did not. It was necessary, therefore, to make some hard decisions about the topics which the survey would cover and which it would have to leave out. The main aim of the survey was to ascertain the nature and extent of contact problems. Thus, we had to take a problem-focused approach to designing the questionnaire which meant that many positive, unproblematic experiences of contact remain unexplored. We were particularly interested in what problems have been experienced, and whether these problems had affected contact. We were also interested in instances where the resident or non-resident parent had stopped contact. Areas that we were unable to include because of concentrating on these issues included: the effect of distance on contact, the frequency and nature of indirect contact, the nature and history of any child welfare concerns, satisfaction with aspects of contact other than frequency, child maintenance payments and the effect of problems on children. Our expert advisory group were able to assist us with the areas to focus on, although the responsibility for the final decisions rests with ourselves. 11

14 PROBLEMATIC CONTACT AFTER SEPARATION AND DIVORCE? The Omnibus survey design also restricted the type of question that could be asked: open-ended questions were not permitted. Thus, many of the questions dealing with a complex area had to be designed as multiple-choice answers, although an open response may have produced a more diverse range of replies. To some extent, results will be shaped by our early decisions over what to include as answer options, although in most cases we were able to include an other; please specify option. The decisions about answer categories were given a lot of thought and again we benefited here from very useful suggestions from our expert advisory group. Parents with more than one child were asked about the situation relating to one child only. There were good reasons for gathering data on only one child: repeating the set of questions for each child would have quickly become wearing for respondents with two or more children; it would have added significantly to the costs of the survey; and would have reduced the time available for other questions. However, it does mean that caution is needed when we discuss the results. We did not ask about every child in a family and parents responses may be different when asked about different children, especially if they have children with more than one partner. The questionnaire focuses on face-to-face or direct contact only. Indirect contact (letters, phone calls, s, etc.) is also important for children and parents, especially where non-resident parents live far from their children, but we were limited in the number of questions we could ask and felt that direct contact was of greater importance for the study. Early in the design of the survey, we decided against including questions for respondents who said they shared the child s care equally with the other parent. We expected that these parents would be a very small minority and that their situation was so different to the usual pattern of resident parent/non-resident parent care that many of the questions would require extensive re-wording. Given the financial limitations on the survey, we felt that investigating these parents further could not be a priority and they were excluded from the module as soon as an early question revealed that they were shared-care parents. However, as discussed below, an unexpectedly high proportion of parents said that they shared care more or less equally, and unfortunately we lack useful information on these respondents. The report thus largely excludes these shared-care parents and as such cannot represent the experience of all separated parents. This survey is also subject to the same shortcomings and sources of error as most survey research, including for example: Some individuals are selected for the survey but choose not to take part this may mean participants are not representative of the whole population (discussed further below); Respondents who do take part are not obliged to be honest or accurate; Respondents may give inaccurate answers to present themselves in a good light or to comply with social norms; Respondents may misunderstand the interviewer s questions, or their answers may not be accurately recorded. Questions about contact may be subject to additional pressures, which we were not able to measure. Contact arrangements can affect the child maintenance payments which the non-resident parent owes to the resident parent. At present the Child 12

15 METHODOLOGY Support Agency reduces the payment in stages if the non-resident parent cares for the child overnight once a week or more, on a regular basis. This may lead some resident parents to understate the amount of staying contact and, vice versa, may cause some non-resident parents to exaggerate the frequency of overnight stays. Where the care of the child is shared equally, only one parent is entitled to Child Benefit and the benefits which are tied to this, and this may mean that some parents who do in fact share care would answer the child lives mainly or entirely with me at the question checking for shared care. Throughout this report we compare resident parents answers with those of nonresident parents. However the two groups differ on other important dimensions as well as by their parent status. This is discussed further in Appendix 1. Non-resident parent response rates While designing the questionnaire, we were aware of previous research which has found much lower response rates among non-resident parents compared with resident parents (e.g. Blackwell and Dawe, 2003). We were concerned to avoid this as far as possible and carefully considered both the introduction to the survey and the question which established whether the respondent had any children living apart from them. The introduction to the module on contact stated: The next questions are asked on behalf of Oxford University and the charity One Parent Families. They are about children whose parents have split up and do not live together. As I said at the beginning of the questionnaire, all your answers are confidential. Parents were then asked: Sometimes parents find it hard to talk about children who do not live with them, but we really need to hear from all separated parents so we can represent their views. Can I just check, do you have any children under 17 who don t live with you but live with their other parent for all or most of the time? Thus we reiterated the promise of confidentiality, indicated that the questions were not being asked for the government, and acknowledged the importance of gathering non-resident parent s views and experiences. We hoped that this would help reduce the problem of low response rates among non-resident parents. In the event, however, only 30 per cent of the respondents to the survey (169) were non-resident parents. One possible reason for this lower response rate could be that some men are unaware that they have fathered children. We think this is unlikely to be a significant factor only 2 per cent of resident mothers in the survey said the father was unaware of the child s existence. Assuming that this means that 98 per cent of all non-resident fathers know that they have a child, lack of awareness is not an adequate explanation for the inclusion of over twice as many resident as nonresident parents. 2 In principle, therefore, the sample should have included roughly equal numbers of resident and non-resident parents. Since this was not the case and, given that there is nothing in the sample design that would explain the difference, it must be mainly due to different response rates for resident and non-resident parents. Possible explanations for this include: 2 Resident parents who were widowed were identified in the initial questions and screened out; the relative high number of resident parents is not due to the inclusion of widow/ers. 13

16 PROBLEMATIC CONTACT AFTER SEPARATION AND DIVORCE? A general problem with male response rates to surveys Resident parents are overwhelmingly female; non-resident parents male. Analysis of demographic data on respondents to the whole Omnibus survey for the waves in which our module was included shows that for the age range 16 52, 56 per cent of respondents were women. 3 A low response rate to the whole Omnibus survey amongst divorced and separated men Marital status also had a noticeable effect on men s participation in the whole survey. In the waves which included our questions, of the divorced respondents in the age group only 36 per cent were male, and 33 per cent of those who were separated from marriage were male. In other words, in the relevant age group there were nearly twice as many female respondents who were separated than male, and nearly twice as many divorced female respondents than male. This affects our survey because non-resident parents are largely divorced or separated men. A lower response rate among never-married non-resident parents The numbers of male and female never-married respondents in the overall survey were roughly equivalent (48 per cent of never-married respondents were male, 52 per cent were female) 4. However, female resident parents were more likely to be never-married than male non-resident parents (49 per cent of female resident parents, 117, were never-married, compared with 28 per cent of male nonresident parents, 40). 5 It seems, therefore, that while never-married men were not really less likely to respond to the survey in general, never-married non-resident parents were disproportionately reluctant to take part, either in the whole survey or to our section of it. This relates to the next point: Reluctance of some respondents to identify themselves as non-resident parents Despite our assurances at the outset, some non-resident parents may have felt wary of disclosing information to interviewers who did after all work for the Office for National Statistics, a Government agency. The Child Support Agency is unpopular amongst many non-resident parents and they may have been concerned about identifying themselves, given that they had already supplied details of work arrangements and salary. Non-resident parents may also have declined to identify themselves because they did not want to talk about their relationship with their child, perhaps because it was a painful topic, or because they felt the questions were likely to be too intrusive. Non-resident parents could either deny having children living apart from them at all, in which case we have no way of identifying them, or they could have stated that they did have children elsewhere but then declined to answer further questions (just three people did this) per cent of resident parents who took part in the survey were aged 52 or below, as were 94 per cent of the non-resident parents. 4 Based on respondents aged Excluding female nonresident parents and male resident parents. Particular reluctance of non-resident parents with no contact to take part As can be seen from Table 2.1, where contact was taking place the ratio of resident to non-resident parent respondents was fairly constant, at around twothirds to one-third. Where there was no contact at all, however, there was a very marked difference, with only 15 per cent of parents being non-resident. Again this may have been too painful an area to be discussed with strangers. 14

17 METHODOLOGY Table 2.1: Proportions of parent types in each contact frequency band How often does Resident parent Non-resident Total (%) Unweighted contact happen? report (%) parent report (%) base At least once a week At least once a month but less often than once a week Less often than once a month No contact Total (%) Unweighted base and unweighted figures. We would conclude that the comparatively low numbers of non-resident parents taking part in our survey is largely driven by three main factors, which probably overlap to some degree: the overall lower response rate to the whole survey for men, particularly divorced and separated men; a low response rate among never-married single men with children living apart from them, which may or may not be specific to our questionnaire; the reluctance of non-resident parents with no contact to take part in our study. The third factor means that the survey included very few non-resident parents who said they had no contact with their child (20). This low base does present this analysis with some problems when we discuss parents whose child has no contact, and in general the data from non-resident parents without contact should be treated with caution. Respondents to the survey: a profile The main difference between the resident and non-resident parents surveyed is gender. As expected, resident parents were nearly always female and non-resident parents nearly always male, a statistically significant difference. 6 The gender difference was less marked among parents who reported that they were sharing care more or less equally, 28 per cent of whom were male (Table 2.2). Non-resident parents were more likely to have re-partnered than resident parents (68 per cent of non-resident parents were living with a partner, compared to 29 per cent of resident parents).* Resident parents were less likely to have ever been married (41 per cent of resident parents had never married compared with 27 per cent of non-resident parents* with shared-care parents again being in the middle (34 per cent). However, in terms of the legal status of their relationship with the other parent of their child, there was no notable difference in responses, with approximately equal proportions of resident and non-resident parents having been married, cohabiting, or not living together, with the child s other parent. This information was not available for the shared care group. 6 In the remaining text, an asterisk indicates that the difference was found to be statistically significant at the p 0.05 level, using a chisquare or t-test as appropriate. 15

18 PROBLEMATIC CONTACT AFTER SEPARATION AND DIVORCE? 16 Table 2.2: Characteristics of survey respondents Resident parent Non-resident Shared-care report (%) parent report (%) parent report (%) Sex Male Female Total (%) Marital status Single, never married Married, living with spouse Married, separated from spouse Divorced Total (%) Partnership status Living with someone as a couple Not asked Relationship with child s other parent Married Not asked Cohabiting outside marriage Not asked In a relationship but not cohabiting 9 6 Not asked Brief relationship or no relationship Not asked Total (%) Child age Not asked Not asked Not asked Not asked Total (%) Age 30 or under or over Total (%) Educational qualifications None, or low GCSE Good GCSE A level or equivalent Above A level Total (%) Employment status Working Not working Total (%) Tenure type Own outright / with mortgage Social renter Private renter Total (%) Ethnic background White British / White other Any other background Total (%) Base Figures weighted for household size. Weights calculated separately for each parent type.

19 METHODOLOGY Overall, the children of the non-resident parent group appeared slightly older than those in the resident parent group (median 12 years old vs.11 years), although this was not statistically significant. The parents themselves also differed in age, with nonresident parents tending to be older (median age 40 years, compared with 38 years for resident parents), although this was not statistically significant. The median age for the shared-care parents was 39; unfortunately, we did not collect data on children s age from the shared-care parents. Resident parents were more likely to have good GCSEs (or equivalent) or above than non-resident parents (38 per cent of non-resident parents did not have qualifications at this level, compared to 25 per cent of resident parents).* Parents with shared care were very similar to resident parents in this respect (78 per cent having good GCSE s or above). Resident parents were less likely to be in paid work than non-resident parents (64 per cent compared with 77 per cent of non-resident parents,* three-quarters (75 per cent) of those with shared care were in paid work but this difference was not significant. Resident parents were also less likely to own or be buying their home (43 per cent compared to 52 per cent of non-resident parents)*. Over half of sharedcare parents (53 per cent) owned or were buying their home but this difference was not significant. 17

20 PROBLEMATIC CONTACT AFTER SEPARATION AND DIVORCE? 3 Patterns of contact Key findings Between 9 per cent and 17 per cent of parents shared the care of the child equally, or nearly equally, with the other parent. Fifty-two per cent of resident parents said they either share the care of the child equally, or that the child stays over with the other parent sometimes. Sixty-five per cent of nonresident parents said there is overnight contact. Forty-four per cent of resident parents said their child either splits their time equally, or sees their other parent at least weekly. However, 29 per cent of resident parents said that their child never sees their other parent, and 20 per cent of all resident parents said that their child has not seen their other parent since separation. Two per cent of all resident mothers said that their child s father does not know the child exists. Overall, non-resident parents tended to report more frequent contact, and more overnight contact, than resident parents. The difficulties of capturing contact arrangements The amount of detail we were able to capture about contact arrangements was necessarily limited. As discussed in the previous chapter, the Omnibus Survey does not permit open-ended questions, and including sufficient specific questions to present a comprehensive picture would have taken up a significant portion of the module and resulted in insufficient time to cover the rest of the topics which were our primary focus. Hence we confined ourselves to asking: whether parents had a shared care arrangement; whether there had ever been contact and whether it was currently occurring; how frequently contact was taking place at present; whether the frequency changed during holiday periods; whether the child ever had overnight contact. We are aware that these measures cannot capture the full variety of contact arrangements. For example, a child who spends a few consecutive days each month with their non-resident parent, and a child who sees their other parent for an hour a month, would both fall into the at least once a month category. The questions about overnight and holiday contact are an attempt to add some more detail to the responses. 18

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